Sunday, February 5th: "Thank God for Salt and Light"
First United Presbyterian Church
“Thank God for Salt and Light”
Rev. Amy Morgan
February 5, 2023
1 Corinthians 2:1-16
When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 3 And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. 4 My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God. 6 Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to perish. 7 But we speak God's wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But, as it is written, "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him"-- 10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God's except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. 13 And we speak of these things in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual. 14 Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God's Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else's scrutiny. 16 "For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.
Matthew 5:13-20
"You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.
14 "You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid.
15 No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.
16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
17 "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.
18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.
19 Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Okay, we’re going to start with a little quiz game. I’ll call it, “Is it Christian Music?” I’m going to say the name of a song, and if you think it’s a contemporary Christian song, raise your hand. If you think it’s a secular song, keep your hands down. Got it? Okay, here we go.
What if (Both, actually).
Big Decision. (off the album Babble by Irish indie rock band That Petrol Emotion)
New Day (Both, actually).
The Weaver. (off the album Gingerbread Man by avant-pop collective The Residents)
Hills and Horizons (Both).
Truth Be Told (Both).
Headspace (Both).
I Could Be In Heaven (1986 single by British indie pop band the Flatmates)
So the point of this exercise is to show how little difference there is between what we define as “Christian” music and “secular” music. I once found myself at a youth ministry conference singing songs that I came to define as “Jesus is my boyfriend” music. In their strain for relevance, these songs literally never mention God or Jesus or the Holy Spirit. It’s implied, I guess, since we were singing them at a youth ministry conference. But if I’d heard these songs played on a secular radio station, I would have thought, “Girl, you gotta get out of that abusive relationship!”
I know I’m going to offend all of you who listen to Christian radio stations by saying this, but when I’m scrolling through the radio dial, I can always tell when I land on the Christian station – because it sounds just like the pop station, only not quite as good.
And I’m convinced that the reason it is not quite as good is that is because a lot of contemporary Christian music is trying too hard to sound like contemporary pop music. Christian music takes themes and styles of popular music and tries to make it fit into the comfortable, sanitized box of cultural Christianity, and it just doesn’t work that well, in my humble opinion.
Now, look at something like the Christian spirituals born out of the black church around the end of the 18th century. This music was, and is, like nothing else. The sound is unique and expressive. The lyrics rise up out of the collective experience of oppression of enslaved people. Spirituals have a flavor all their own. It isn’t trying to be anything it isn’t. It’s authentic. It’s contextual. And it makes us see the world in a new light. Now that is Christian music, again, in my humble opinion.
My aim today is really not to offend fans of contemporary Christian music and lecture you all on what is and is not authentically Christian song. But when Jesus tells his disciples that they are salt and light, this is what he is saying.
Salt had a variety of purposes in the first century – it was used in sacrifice; it represented loyalty and faithfulness; it provided purification, seasoning, and was used as a preservative. But in all of these uses, salt represents something distinctive and functional.
Salt is the thing that is different. You need just a little of it to be noticeable, but you don’t miss it. Food is bland without salt. It isn’t supposed to blend in to the point where it tastes like flour or broth or asparagus. It is the thing you add to flour or broth or asparagus to make it taste good so we want more of it.
And light is not supposed to blend into the background. Light is not supposed to be hidden in the surrounding darkness. No, it shines out, not to illuminate itself, but to help others see the world the way it really is, so we’re not stumbling around in the dark and being frightened by our own shadows.
Now, it’s important for us to notice here that Jesus is not telling his disciples they need to do something or try harder. Salt can’t try to be salty. Light can’t work harder to be light. Jesus is describing who his followers are – this blessed community we heard about last week in the Beatitudes. All of the “you” statements in this passage are plural. He’s saying, “Y’all are the salt of the earth,” “y’all are the light of the world.” This isn’t a passage we can turn to in defense of the individualistic Protestant work ethic. Salt is salt, and it’s not very effective as individual grains. It is a collective seasoning. And light is light, not as individual photons but as a collective beam. And as a community of Jesus-followers, that is what y’all are. Something distinctive and illuminating.
The last part of today’s reading starts to get into the how of this identity, what we’re supposed to do to live into it. But we’re going to save that for next week because it is really more relevant to what comes after this. For now, we’re going to stay focused on these being statements Jesus makes.
The church really prefers to focus on doing. What are we supposed to do to get into heaven, please God, save ourselves, be accepted by the Christian community, be relevant to the popular culture? My bookshelves are lined with instruction manuals for what the church is supposed to do to be successful, healthy, connected to our community, reach young people. I mostly stopped reading those books years ago because I realized they sounded exactly like the how-to guides of business moguls and self-help gurus. They promised one-size-fits-all solutions for churches in very different contexts, churches of different sizes and gifts and challenges. But in 12 easy steps they were supposed to be able to increase membership and deepen faithfulness.
These books were not salt and light. They were not noticeably different from the surrounding culture. They weren’t illuminating the reign of God on earth. Instead, they were trying to help churches look like every other cultural institution and dim the light of the gospel so people wouldn’t see just how different we are.
And again, this misses the whole point of Jesus’s declaration about salt and light. Biblical scholar M. Eugene Boring notes that, “Salt loses its saltiness not by some impossible chemical miracle, but by becoming so impure, so mixed with other elements that it loses its function.” Followers of Jesus have a noticeably distinct flavor, and people are supposed to see God’s reign when they’re around us. When we blend in or dim our unique enlightenment, we are not being what God in Jesus Christ created us to be.
Christian music and publishing aren’t the only aspects of contemporary Christianity that miss the salt and light metaphor. I’ve watch plenty of Christian trends come and go as churches strive for relevancy instead of distinctiveness. A few decades ago, Christian pastors started trying to blend in with their congregants and the surrounding culture by dropping the robes and clergy collars and donning skinny jeans, flannel shirts, and beanies. I thought prayer stations and contemplative prayer were innovative, until I started seeing them everywhere, including on Pinterest and podcasts. We’ve taken church into the local pubs, created sanctuaries filled with reclaimed wood and Edison bulbs, added coffeehouses to our fellowship halls and transformed the gospel of loving self-sacrifice into an individualistic self-help guide.
Much of modern American Christianity is the farthest thing from salt and light. The French philosopher and culture critic Simone Weil said, “To be always relevant, you have to say things which are eternal.” The church often ignores those things that are eternal, that have been gifted to us by Jesus Christ, and instead we follow trends that we hope will make us relevant, accessible, blend in to the surrounding culture. And that is exactly how we are failing to remain relevant in this culture. Because the church tries to mimic culture, only with a message that doesn’t fit into that culture and with far less funding than secular media, and so it ends up looking similar but not as good. And it’s frankly a little sad to watch.
The saddest part, though, is that this is not who we are, and we know it. When I was in middle school and my sister was in high school, I used to envy her fabulous wardrobe and super cool hairstyle. Occasionally I would work up the courage to ask if I could borrow her clothes. The answer was usually, “no.” So one day I snuck into her closet and pulled out my favorite of her fabulous outfits, this emerald green skirt and frilly strapless crop top. It was all the glory of the late 1980’s. And I wore it to a school dance, thinking I would look AMAZING and all the boys would think I was AWESOME. And I felt like an idiot the whole night. The skirt felt too short, and I kept tugging at the crop top and fiddling with the shoulders. I couldn’t get comfortable and have fun. Because this outfit was amazing on my sister, but it just was not me. I felt like a total impostor. I was trying to be something I was not, and I just knew everyone at the dance could tell.
As Christians, and especially as a community of Jesus-followers, we are created to be distinctive and not “relevant;” and we help people see the world as it is in God’s reign. That’s not who we have to try to be. It’s who we are as followers of Jesus, as that blessed community. But we keep trying to be things we are not. We keep trying to blend in with the cool kids and not be noticed for how different we are.
But this isn’t just sad for us. This is sad for the whole world. Jesus said, “y’all are the salt of the EARTH; the light of the WORLD.” Salt doesn’t benefit itself, and light doesn’t illuminate itself. These things exist for the enjoyment and the revelation of others, of everyone in the whole world, according to Jesus. By trying to be something we’re not, we aren’t just being false to ourselves, we are robbing the cosmos of flavor and enlightenment.
So I’m really sorry if I’ve ruined anyone’s enjoyment of contemporary Christian music this morning. Really, you do you and love what you love. But maybe we can also take a long, loving look at who we are as Jesus-followers, how we are influencing the culture around us, and just lean into being what Jesus created us to be. Distinctive. Enlightening. Different. Visible. Maybe we can be more like African-American spirituals than contemporary Christian music. Maybe we can be more authentic and distinctive and illuminating.
Now, visibility and distinctiveness will feel uncomfortable sometimes. And it should. Remember, right before this verse Jesus is talking about how blessed y’all are when you’re persecuted for his name’s sake. Following Jesus isn’t a cushy undertaking. It is an identity. It is authentic. And it is who we have been created to be. Salt and light, for all the earth, for the whole world.
To God be all glory forever and ever. Amen.
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